Ingredients

Preparation Instructions

Beat 4 egg whites until foamy, add 1/4 teaspoon salt, and continue to beat until stiff. Add gradually a generous 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating briskly after each addition, until the mixture stands up in peaks. Beat in 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier, Cointreau, benedictine, or any other liqueur. Sprinkle a little orange-flavored granulated sugar (equal parts sugar and grated orange rind) over the sides and bottom of a generously buttered tub mold, plain or fluted. Fill the prepared mold up to 1/2 inch from the top with the egg mixture, place in a pan containing hot water reaching up to 2/3 of the mold, and bake in a hot oven (400 F.) for 20 minutes. Cool in a place free of drafts, then chill in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, unmold the snow eggs on a chilled crystal platter and surround with unsweetened whipped cream.

Karen’s baking notes: This dessert is unlike anything I’ve eaten. Instead of being crisp like meringue, it is spongy and moist, and literally melts on your tongue like snow. The orange-sugar is transformed into this gorgeous yolk-like glaze.

The directions here are spot-on. My only challenge was determining the best type of pan. I used a 9-inch Bundt pan, which I am guessing is bigger than what Gourmet had in mind, but in the end it worked. Do not be alarmed, as I was the first time I tried this recipe: The puffed up egg whites deflate after you take the pan out of the oven. I nearly threw my first attempt away, but at the last minute decided to see what the whole affair looked like when I inverted it onto a plate.

To my utter fascination, it really did look like snowy eggs.

I did not bother garnishing this dessert with whipped cream, but instead cut the ring into inch-wide slivers that could be eaten in a bite or two, almost like a cookie, and put those on a platter, along with other cookies.

Unusual dessert melts on your tongue

We interrupt this regularly scheduled cookie series to bring you something completely different.

It is neither cookie nor cake, not quite candy and certainly not a pudding.

But it is quaintly sweet and delicious, melts in your mouth and is fun to say in French: Oeufs à la Neige Moulés Façon Marguery.

I found the recipe in the November 1948 issue of Gourmet, the magazine that went out of business in 2009, ending a near 70-year run.

The recipe was included in a monthly recipe request feature called “You Asked for It!”

Reading these columns is a delicious sampler of where culinary curiosity hovered among the elite post-World War II subscribers. The language was just as luscious.

Q: My gal is always cooking eggplant — and always the same way. How can I tactfully suggest a little variety?

A: By reminding her of the old axiom, “The Way to a man’s heart...” and presenting her with the following recipe (for Curried Baked Stuffed Eggplant Parisienne).

Q: Twenty years ago I was given buttermilk ice cream prepared by an old French lady. Since that time I have inquired diligently for the recipe, only to be met each time with a horrified look.

A: Twenty years is a long time to put up with horrified looks! May your first taste of this help to dispel them from your memory. (Buttermilk Ice Cream recipe follows).

Q: I have heard from my doctor, who was the one to start me on the road to Gourmet and overweight, that Katish’s cheesecake is just the thing to add on a few more pounds, it’s so wonderful. So would you please repeat the recipe for a new subscriber?

A: Here is your doctor’s prescription, ma’am, and may the extra pounds keep him away. (Katish’s Cheesecake recipe follows. According to an article at Gourmet.com, this was the magazine’s most frequently requested recipe.)

But my favorite You Asked For It! Q&A from 1948 is this one:

Q: Having just become acquainted with the use of liqueurs in desserts, I am open to any of your good suggestions.

Mr. Daniel Ehmann

Rochester, New York

A: We heartily approve of your good taste, and we are delighted to oblige.